Brendan Fehr, Andre Noble, Marnie McPhail

Based on several short stories by writer Bruce LeBruce, Sugar is a provocative and funny coming of age love story. Cliff, a gay teen, is restless in his sheltered suburban life, and anxious to have hi...( read more  read more... )s first sexual experience. One night, while downtown, he meets a tough street hustler, Butch, who introduces him to a world of sex, drugs, prostitution and life on the streets. Romance blossoms between the two until drugs begin to pull them apart. Realistic and challenging, Sugar is about coming out and coming of age.

Flixster Users

60% liked it

1,828 ratings

Critics

86% liked it

7 critics

R, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: John Palmer

Release Date: January 1, 2004

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DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004

Stats: 145 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (145)


  • December 14, 2008
    The script for Sugar was based on several short stories by Bruce LaBruce. It is the story of Cliff, a normal teenager living in Toronto with his single mom and spooky wise-beyond-her-years sister Cookie. On the eve of Cliff's eighteenth birthday, twelve year-old Cookie gives her ...( read more)brother some vodka, a joint, and and an admonition to "go have sex." He ends up heading downtown where he stumbles into a dark alley full of male hustlers his own age. There he meets hardened drug-addled professional Butch, and they seem to hit it off. The rest of the movie details Cliff's crush on Butch, and how the two influence each other in one boy's strange and the other's suburban ways. Cliff is about to become obsessed with "dirty" things, and Butch is going to be jealous of his friend's cushy homelife with a liberal mother and hyperactive but insightful sister. The film does a good job in this last regard, making it impossible to distinguish between the familiar pangs of restless youth and the plunge into the unknown that its protagonist makes. But lying immobile under the concept are the characters of Cliff and Butch, who don't come alive as people. The script is too opaque, never really explaining what draws the boys to each other or elucidating what they feel: they experiment with sex, make vulgar adolescent conversation, and drift through encounters with various tricks, but the attendant motives and emotions remain unclear. Sugar plays down the melodrama, in that AIDS is barely mentioned, the acceptance from Cliff's family is almost assumed and the excessive drug use is hardly condemned.
  • July 16, 2007
    The only thing that I'm dissappointed about is that you see everybody'd BUT Brendan -- Whom you want to see if you watch this movie -- hehehehe
  • May 2, 2007
    incredibly heartbreaking... touching at extreme points. Sexy but soft, hardcore but cute, bitter but sweet. Love above everything but destroyed by the characters themselves. Incredible performances, a nice little uneven and humble screenplay, a raw cinematography, unforgettable l...( read more)ines... one of my favorite movies of all time. Sadly underrated even if it's actually flawed and raw. Not your movie-next-door or Lifetime-masterpiece but a REAL reflection of RAW LIFE. Life as it is: unperfect...
  • September 15, 2009
    More interesting than entertaining but I did like it.
  • August 16, 2009
    Very good gay drama.
  • June 27, 2009
    Doesn't offer too much except for a glimpse into the lives of these cocaine-sniffing gays/bisexuals. One scene was difficult to watch, but funny at the same time.
  • January 25, 2009
    This movie was okay. It was really interesting to watch. It wasn't at all a waste of time, because this movie was really short. Worth it's time.
  • November 28, 2008
    fucking amazing, it was a screwed up story line and twisted i loved this indie film.
  • October 17, 2008
    No thankyou - Not interested
  • August 28, 2008
    Enjoyed the movie but was not happy with the last part of the movie.

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Sugar Trivia


  • "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down" in what movie?  Answer »
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